Dance Central

Dance Central
Developer(s)	Harmonix Music Systems
Publisher(s)	MTV Games Microsoft Game Studios
Series	Dance Central
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release date(s)	NA 20101104November 4, 2010 EU 20101110November 10, 2010 AU 20101118November 18, 2010 JP 20110602June 2, 2011
Genre(s)	Music, Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Distribution	DVD-ROM

Dance Central is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 that uses the Kinect motion peripheral. The game was developed by Harmonix Music Systems, creators of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, and is a launch title for Kinect. Dance Central 2 was officially announced at E3 2011 and later released in October 2011.^[1] Dance Central 3 was officially announced at E3 2012 and was released in October 2012.

Gameplay

Gameplay involves the player performing given dance moves which are tracked by Kinect and represented on the screen by one of eight in-game avatars. The game features over 650 different dance moves spanning over 90 dance routines. There are five modes available:

• Perform It: The regular single-player gameplay mode, in which the objective is to complete these dance routines to earn a high score.
• Workout Mode: An extension to regular mode in which the number of calories burned are also tracked, along with the workout time.
• Dance Battle: Two players compete in a head-to head dance routine battle. The person with the highest score is the winner. In the rare event there is a tie in the score, the player who passed more moves wins.
• Challenge Mode: Once all songs (four or five) in each difficulty category have at least four stars on each one, a challenge based on the difficulty is unlocked. This mode increases the difficulty of the game by having portions of four or five songs combined into one, thus mixing up the dance moves. All challenges must be completed with four stars on each challenge in order to unlock the final challenge.
• Break it Down: A practice mode that allows beginners to learn more advanced dance moves in a step-by-step process.^[2]

Major Characters

• Angel
• Miss Aubrey
• Emilia
• Dare
• MacCoy
• Mo
• Oblio
• Taye

Unlocked Characters

• Ttiw Tolrep (known as Shinju in later games)
• ELIOT

Non-Playable

• Dr Tan (outro only)

Venues

• 5th Period - A school inside. There's a snackbar being closed and can't be open on evenings.
• The Planks - An amusement park behind and a dock.
• The Roost - A top building behind Perro Soul Restaurant. Unlock by earning 50 stars
• Gridlock - A highway bridge. Unlock by earning 75 stars
• City Limit - A High Voltage Powerline facility. Unlock by earning 100 stars
• Dr. Tan's Estate - A mansion owned by Dr. Tan. Unlock by earning 5 stars in the seven difficulty challenges and the final challenge.

Soundtrack

On Disc

The following 32 songs are included on the game disc.^[3][4] Warm up challenge songs are highlighted red, Simple challenge songs are highlighted orange, Moderate challenge songs are highlighted yellow, Tough challenge songs are highlighted green, Legit challenge songs are highlighted blue, Hardcore challenge songs are highlighted purple, and Off the Hook challenge songs are highlighted pink. All songs in the grand finale challenge led by ELIOT are highlighted magenta.

Downloadable Content

The following songs have been released as downloadable content via the Xbox Live Marketplace. These songs also deliver new routines. There are 32 DLC songs available for Dance Central, and all songs are forwards compatible with Dance Central 2 and Dance Central 3.

^a Free with Best Buy code.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 83.22%[5] Metacritic 82/100[6] Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com A-[7] Eurogamer 8/10[8] GamePro 4.5/5[9] GamesRadar 8/10[10] GameSpot 8.5/10[11] GameTrailers 8.1/10[12] IGN 8/10[13] Giant Bomb [14]

Critical reception

Dance Central received positive reviews from critics. It received a score of 83.22% on GameRankings^[5] and 82/100 on Metacritic.^[6] It received a rating of 8/10 from IGN and a rating of 8.5/10 from GameSpot.^[13][11] Video game talk show Good Game: Spawn Point gave the game an 8 out of 10 calling it the best launch game for the Kinect and a step forward for dance games. They said workout mode was a nice addition which will definitely give you a workout and the Dance Battles would be a big hit at parties.^[15] Nintendo of America's President, in an interview, said that "Dance Central is, by far, the best Kinect game".^[16]

Sales

As of August 18, 2011, the game has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide.^[17]

Demos

As in the 1st Dance Central, there are two types of Demo: Downloadable via Xbox Live and In game demo in the Kinect Adventures!. Both demos have Emilia and Mo as the default characters & 5th Period as the only stage in game. The demo differs from each other and have different songs.

Kinect Adventures! version:

Xbox Live Demo version:

Sequels

During Microsoft's press conference at E3 2011, Harmonix announced Dance Central 2. Features new to the sequel include voice integration, a campaign mode, an improved "Break it Down" mode, and two-player simultaneous dancing.^[18] Similar to Rock Band 3, Dance Central 2 will be able to import on-disc songs from the original Dance Central as well as any downloaded songs. Harmonix stated that more than 100 songs will be available by the launch of Dance Central 2.^[19]

References

External links

• Official website